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MLB pushing its own investigation of latest PED report

Newsday

Major League Baseball’s investigation into the alleged purchase of performance-enhancing drugs by several players — including Alex Rodriguez and Francisco Cervelli of the Yankees — from a now-defunct anti-aging clinic in South Florida will not hinge on the release of documents from the newspaper that first reported the story, a source said Monday.

MLB officials said last month that they have been gathering and reviewing information from their own active investigation in South Florida, and particularly the Biogenesis clinic’s operations, since at least 2009. That was when Manny Ramirez allegedly was linked to Anthony Bosch, who ran Biogenesis, and Bosch’s father, Pedro, a Coral Gables, Fla., doctor. Ramirez was given a 50-game suspension for using a female fertility drug that contained a banned substance.

MLB on Monday declined to comment on the status of the investigation. But Miami New Times editor Chuck Strouse said MLB has asked for more information.

“They want our documents,” he said. “We put up lots of the documents redacted online; they want more than that. Exactly what, I’m not quite sure. The downside (to releasing the information) is that we’re reporters. And moreover, Major League Baseball is a business and I’m not in the habit of handing the product of reporters’ work over to a business. That’s sort of where the conundrum is here.”

The Brewers’ Ryan Braun, the other high-profile player named in the story, said his lawyers consulted with Bosch during Braun’s successful appeal of a 50-game ban arising out of a positive test in 2011.

Cervelli last week wrote on his Twitter feed that in March 2011, he purchased supplements from the clinic to treat a foot injury but was certain they were not banned substances. Cervelli is expected to elaborate on his situation when he addresses reporters Wednesday in Tampa, Fla.

Strouse said his newspaper stands by the story.

“A lot of the baseball players have denied, a number have already said they’ve seen the guy, acknowledged that they’ve seen the guy, so I think the story is fine one way or the other,” Strouse said. “The question is whether there is action to follow the story.”

MLB is expected to interview the players named in the New Times story.